The Breakfast Club, Spitalfields

Met a friend for dinner recently, it was somewhat impromptu. I say somewhat because it was one of those occasions where she thought she’s have to work late but it turned out she didn’t. So, having cancelled our original restaurant reservation we met at Liverpool Street station and decided to check out the new(ish) Spitalfields branch of The Breakfast Club. It was a quiet Wednesday evening so we were seated straight away, all the while taking in the charmingly quirky décor.
After something satisfying for a cold autumnal evening (as well as stomach-lining in preparation of the inevitable post-dinner cocktails), I ordered a cheeseburger. My friend, being vegetarian, opted for the Halloumi wrap. The food arrived quickly (almost too quickly) and I was disappointed. My burger was dry, bland and over-cooked with too much bun for the size of the patty and the cheese being what I can only assume was a slice of American processed. In addition, the coleslaw was bland and watery, the dish's saving grace came in the form of the piping hot and delicious potato wedges - must've been a fresh batch. The other saving grace being that we arrived in the nick of time for happy hour which saved us precious monies from our delicious mango daiquiris.
The service though, leaves something to be desired, it was quiet, admittedly but the waiters were rather inattentive and spent much of the evening chatting just out of sight to the point where out of necessity we had to wave them over, overall the breakfast club should stick to breakfast. Now, there has been a lot of talk about the smeg-fridge door where you’ll find the mayor of scaredy-cat town, a less-than-secret speakeasy where you’ll find delicious cocktails abound. Check the menu and ask your waiter for details, let’s just say that the disappointing food was saved by our lovely cocktails.


I decided to give this same branch another try a few days later as a friend came to visit for the day from Oxford. Ginger, Harsh and I decided to fuel up with a good brunch in advance of a day of a London stomp and brunch, after all, is how The Breakfast Club made its name. Arriving at 10.30am on a Sunday, the place was immensely busy which meant a little wait and time to peruse the extensive breakfasty-brunchy options. We were seated in one of the booth seats which are really nice and apparently from re-claimed changing room benches, much of the furniture here is made from re-claimed items which is great.

Again, probably owing the busyness of the place this time, rather than quietness as in my previous visit, the service was hectic and inattentive and we had to wave someone over to get them to take our order, we’d chosen what we wanted as we were queuing for a table so the extra wait was a bit irritating. Furthermore I think we were served by at least four different people which is less than ideal.  Teas and coffees all round, I must say that my flat white was absolutely delicious. I don’t know what  coffee blend they use but it’s a winner. I ordered the chorizo hash browns but one of the eggs came underdone, they are cooked sunny side up which I don’t have a problem with but one of them had a lot of the white un-cooked. A waitress took them back to the kitchen only to have them returned to me cooked all the way through. They had clearly taken the same eggs off my plate, put them back in the pan and cooked it through. This isn’t what I wanted at all and it meant I missed out on the runny yolk. It’s not so much that they did this that bothers me, I realise they were busy but they didn’t check with me if this would be ok and were so unapologetic all the while. I only complained about one egg and both were returned to me cooked through to the point of rubbery. Harsh’s green eggs and ham was also dry but good she told me and Ginger’s all-american pancakes went down a storm so a mixed bag really, but having had two rather disappointing meals in a row, I might skip the food and head straight for the cocktails in future.


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